Youth and adult perspectives on representation in local child and youth councils in Ireland
| dc.contributor.author | Martin, Shirley | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Forde, Catherine | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-04-01T08:21:15Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-04-01T08:21:15Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2017-05 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | When we consider young people’s participation in democratic societies, we have to ask to what extent young people are or should be representative of the communities they are active within. This paper is based on findings from a participatory research project which examined young people’s perspectives on taking part in Comhairle na nÓg, the local youth councils in Ireland. The article considers how differing understandings of the concept of representation may impact on the experiences, provision and structures of participatory initiatives for young people. The findings reveal differing attitudes between youth participants and adult support staff towards the meaning of representation. Many of the adult personnel refer to representation in terms of accessing and retaining younger age-groups and “seldom heard” young people, while significant numbers of youth respondents indicated that they understand representation as having a voice, being heard, and making a difference, rather than necessarily about representativeness and they view themselves as being representative of other young people. | en |
| dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | en |
| dc.description.version | Published Version | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.citation | Martin, S. and Forde, C. (2017) 'Youth and adult perspectives on representation in local child and youth councils in Ireland', Youth & Policy, 116, pp. 79-95. Available online: https://www.youthandpolicy.org/y-and-p-archive/issue-116/ | en |
| dc.identifier.endpage | 95 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 0262-9798 | en |
| dc.identifier.journaltitle | Youth & Policy | en |
| dc.identifier.startpage | 79 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10468/17221 | |
| dc.identifier.volume | 116 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | National Youth Agency | en |
| dc.relation.uri | https://www.youthandpolicy.org/y-and-p-archive/issue-116/ | en |
| dc.rights | © 2017, Youth & Policy. | en |
| dc.subject | Youth councils | en |
| dc.subject | Youth participation | en |
| dc.subject | Representation | en |
| dc.title | Youth and adult perspectives on representation in local child and youth councils in Ireland | en |
| dc.type | Article (peer-reviewed) | en |
